fastlane & App Store Connect

Ticket n12 sets up the release machinery: everything App Store Connect needs — screenshots, metadata, builds — becomes a file in the repo or a lane that produces one. The setup below exists in 4Notice as written; the first full screenshot run and the first upload are still ahead (where the trail ends).

1. Pin fastlane with Bundler

fastlane’s behavior changes between versions, so the version is a repo fact, not a machine fact:

# Gemfile
source "https://rubygems.org"
gem "fastlane", "~> 2.236"

bundle install once, then every invocation is bundle exec fastlane <lane> — the same version for every machine and every agent run.

2. Credentials stay in the environment

The board workflow’s rule — never put secrets in repo files — applies with force here, because fastlane needs an App Store Connect API key. The Fastfile reads it exclusively from the environment:

def asc_api_key
  app_store_connect_api_key(
    key_id: ENV.fetch("ASC_KEY_ID"),
    issuer_id: ENV.fetch("ASC_ISSUER_ID"),
    key_filepath: ENV.fetch("ASC_KEY_PATH"),  # .p8 outside the repo
    ...
  )
end

A check_asc lane fails early with the name of the missing variable, and .env is gitignored. The Appfile holds only the two values that are public anyway: bundle identifier and team ID.

3. Screenshots are a UI test

fastlane snapshot drives the screenshot matrix — in 4Notice: two devices × seven languages, declared once in the Snapfile:

devices(["iPhone 17", "iPad Pro 13-inch (M5)"])
languages(["en-US", "de-DE", "fr-FR", "es-ES", "it", "ja", "zh-Hans"])
launch_arguments(["-uitest -uitest-reset -uitest-demo"])

Two decisions make this work:

• Demo content is seeded in code. The launch argument -uitest-demo fills the four notes with sample text — and the sample text lives in the same string catalog as the UI (demo.* keys). One seeding function, and every language’s screenshots show translated notes.
• The shots are a plain XCUITest. ScreenshotUITests swipes through the notes and calls snapshot("01-yellow") per motif. fastlane repeats it per device and language.

The run is registered as a project action so it can be started from the board — with its cost stated in the description: the full matrix takes about 30 minutes.

4. Metadata is files, per language

The store listing is not typed into a web form. It lives in fastlane/metadata/<lang>/ — name.txt, subtitle.txt, description.txt, keywords.txt, release_notes.txt — for all seven languages, versioned like any other source. Fields whose real values don’t exist yet (support_url, privacy_url) are committed empty rather than filled with placeholders. A metadata_dry_run lane pushes metadata alone (deliver with skip_binary_upload), so the listing can be iterated without building anything.

5. Build and upload lanes

One lane per platform, same shape: regenerate the Xcode project, archive, upload.

lane :beta do
  check_asc
  sh("cd .. && xcodegen generate --quiet")
  build_app(scheme: "FourNotice-iOS", export_method: "app-store", ...)
  upload_to_testflight(...)
end

Before any upload, the imported release-checks skill runs — plist keys, entitlements, orphan strings — the same three contracts that gated every ticket since.

Where the trail ends

As of this writing, that is the practiced state: the lanes, the test, the metadata files exist and are the ones quoted above. The first complete screenshot matrix, the App Store Connect app record and the first TestFlight upload have not run yet — this chapter continues, and the submission chapter begins, once they have.